


I am one such dream

by marginalia



Category: Being Human (UK)
Genre: Gen, coziness and ghostly domesticity, written based on the pilot alone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1629473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginalia/pseuds/marginalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before leaving George, that girl told Annie to take care of him. Imagine saying that to her, as if a werewolf can't take care of himself. As if there was anything a ghost could do about it if he couldn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I am one such dream

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to M&S for the beta, as always!
> 
> Written for Keenir

 

 

::1

Before leaving George, that girl told Annie to take care of him. Imagine saying that to her, as if a werewolf can't take care of himself. As if there was anything a ghost could do about it if he couldn't.

As if Annie could help the fact that he hoped so hard and so fast. As if he hadn't started making plans the minute he saw Julia again, that day in hospital. As if Annie hadn't been able to tell that in a glance, even though they'd only just met.

Maybe Julia understood what he really needed was protection from himself.

::2

George does like to plan. He has schemes for the house and the garden. He thinks it's high time he makes some for his life.

All Annie plans is what she's going to read. She collects book lists, the more obscure the better. Things like the Big Read are useless, full of things she read when she was young. Now she has the time to read everything. She discovered George was a reader before he even met her. She discovered a lot of things by sneaking looks through still-packed boxes when he and Mitchell were at work.

Living with someone is the fastest way to figure out who they are.

::3

Annie thinks George has a list of questions about her, which he's ticking off as he tries to discover the rules. Mitchell laughs at him. "What do you think you're going to do, publish? _The Care and Feeding of a Ghost_?"

George tilts his head, as if considering. "Reckon people'd buy it? It'd be easier than the hospital for sure."

Annie pretends to be put out, but it's fine in small doses. The more attention he pays her, the less likely she'll be to fade at the pub and cause general panic.

The real panic comes when you realize there are no rules.

::4

George tries to set rules anyway. His favorite thing about the house is the blackboard wall next to the telephone. When they first moved in he sat in front of it for a full two hours, pondering the best use of space. Mitchell went out to the shops and back without George noticing he was gone, and when he handed him a multicolored set of chalk, George nearly threw it at his head to hide how pleased he was.

He sketched a master calendar of hospital shifts and moon cycles, a space for important phone numbers, a schedule of chores, and empty boxes for phone messages. 

Not that it matters, because Mitchell never takes down messages anyway.

::5

The blackboard wall is the anchor. It's the small things, the routines that George thinks will hold them all together. The lists of bigger things live in his head. The most important list is not Rules For Being A Ghost, but the list of Things They Don't Talk About. How Annie Died. How George Was Changed. How George and Mitchell Met.

That doesn't mean he's not interested. Of course he's interested; how could you not be? He asks her silly questions, like why she never changes her clothes, if she ever bathes, and why she bothers putting on a hoodie to go out.

She asks him if he's trying to get her kit off, and he blushes right to the tips of his ears.

::6

"If other people can see you now, does that mean your fiance?" George trailed off.

"No," she said sharply. Then, "Yes. No. I don't know. I haven't thought about it", which was the most transparent lie. She reached out for a day old cup of tea and turned it round and around, cold between her hands. "I wouldn't want him to, not now. Not any of them. Sometimes I worry when we're out. It's not just being away from the house. It's, what if I saw someone, you know?"

He nodded.

Annie shrugged. "But it doesn't matter. People. They don't really see anything at all."

::7

The box room was fixed up for Annie, Mitchell grumbling about boxes of things that wouldn't fit in his room but were apparently still vital for him to keep. They all spent time in front of George's beloved wall, debating a new chore rotation. "I want to be fair about it," George said. "There are a lot of things that don't apply, I suppose."

"Though the washing up surely does," Mitchell said, tilting his head towards a row of mugs of tea. Or coffee. Or hot chocolate. He resisted the temptation to say that she's not contributing financially, though of course everyone was thinking it.

"We should consider," George said out of nowhere, "fixing up the garden."

Annie, hugging her knees to her chest, ducked her head to hide her smile.

::8

There are boundaries to be worked out. Annie spent a year not speaking to anyone, and sometimes it seems she's trying to make up for it all at once. After all the people she scared away from the house she finally understands. It's not that she wanted to be alone. It's that she wanted to be seen.

They spend a few too many evenings down at the Shakey, and more late nights sprawled on the sofa, watching bad television and movies that are even worse. The television is the fault of Mitchell and his absurd addiction to reality programming. The movies, though, are all George.

Before the curse, he would order collections of monster movies, the dead cheap overseas sets of fifty out of copyright films. After, he threw out all the ones with werewolves, but the real prizes of the collection are still the giant beasts, and anything involving radiation or an experiment gone wrong. Eventually Mitchell creates a new rule: any movie obtained for less than a quid a title is only to be watched when he goes out for the evening.

Annie decides the one thing scarier than the three of them is terrible filmmaking.

::9

Since Mitchell found the space under the hospital, he wasn't needed anymore to chase George around the city, delivering clothing, the Star of David necklace, and transportation back home. George did still need someone to free him in the morning, but now that person could be Annie.

"I miss eating," she said walking home one morning. "My fiance worked nights when we were first together. Sometimes we'd get breakfast. Today," she shrugged. "Today makes me miss that. I mean you, you must be starving."

"Before, I went to the woods. So I wouldn't be. I'd have. Well. I'd have eaten." Helplessly, he holds his hands up at his sides.

She makes a face. "Please don't tell me you miss that."

He laughs so hard she thinks he'll hurt himself.

::10

George always tires easier on the day or two after the full moon. Annie and Mitchell are quieter around him. They do a few of his chores. Mitchell doesn't tease him for actually taking one of Annie's endless cups of tea.

He falls asleep on the sofa in front of some movie about a doctor on a deserted island who is working to create half-size humans. Annie watches him for longer than she would have looked at anyone while alive. She covers him with a blanket, tucking him in like she would a child. She gently tugs off his glasses, and then runs a hand over his hair to see if its as soft as it looks.

He shifts a little into her touch, but doesn't wake.

 


End file.
